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This review analyzes the causes and consequences of apoptosis resulting from oxidative stress that occurs in mitochondria and cells exposed to the toxic effects of different-valence heavy metals (Ag+, Tl+, Hg2+, Cd2+, Pb2+, Al3+, Ga3+, In3+, As3+, Sb3+, Cr6+, and U6+). The problems of the relationship between the integration of these toxic metals into molecular mechanisms with the subsequent development of pathophysiological processes and the appearance of diseases caused by the accumulation of these metals in the body are also addressed in this review. Such apoptosis is characterized by a reduction in cell viability, the activation of caspase-3 and caspase-9, the expression of pro-apoptotic genes (Bax and Bcl-2), and the activation of protein kinases (ERK, JNK, p53, and p38) by mitogens. Moreover, the oxidative stress manifests as the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP) opening, mitochondrial swelling, an increase in the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and H2O2, lipid peroxidation, cytochrome c release, a decline in the inner mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨmito), a decrease in ATP synthesis, and reduced glutathione and oxygen consumption as well as cytoplasm and matrix calcium overload due to Ca2+ release from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The apoptosis and respiratory dysfunction induced by these metals are discussed regarding their interaction with cellular and mitochondrial thiol groups and Fe2+ metabolism disturbance. Similarities and differences in the toxic effects of Tl+ from those of other heavy metals under review are discussed. Similarities may be due to the increase in the cytoplasmic calcium concentration induced by Tl+ and these metals. One difference discussed is the failure to decrease Tl+ toxicity through metallothionein-dependent mechanisms. Another difference could be the decrease in reduced glutathione in the matrix due to the reversible oxidation of Tl+ to Tl3+ near the centers of ROS generation in the respiratory chain. The latter may explain why thallium toxicity to humans turned out to be higher than the toxicity of mercury, lead, cadmium, copper, and zinc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safety-critical embedded software is routinely programmed in block-diagram languages. Recent work in the Vélus project specifies such a language and its compiler in the Coq proof assistant. It builds on the CompCert verified C compiler to give an end-to-end proof linking the dataflow semantics of source programs to traces of the generated assembly code. We extend this work with switched blocks, shared variables, reset blocks, and state machines; define a relational semantics to integrate these block- and mode-based constructions into the existing stream-based model; adapt the standard source-to-source rewriting scheme to compile the new constructions; and reestablish the correctness theorem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intravenous supply of aluminum (Al) present in parenteral nutrition solutions poses a high risk of the absorption of this element, which can result in metabolic bone disease, anemia, and neurological complications. The aim of this study is to determine the impact of long-term parenteral nutrition (PN) in children on serum Al concentration and its urinary excretion compared to healthy children. We evaluated serum Al concentrations and its urinary excretion in patients enrolled in the Polish home parenteral nutrition (HPN) program between 2004 and 2022. The study group included 83 patients and the control group consisted of 121 healthy children. In children whose PN was started in the neonatal period, we found higher serum Al concentrations and higher urinary Al excretion than in other subjects whose PN was started later. Only 12% of the children on chronic parenteral nutrition had serum Al concentrations of less than 5 μg/L. Healthy children in the control group had higher serum Al concentrations than those in the parenteral nutrition group, which may indicate the influence of one's environment and diet on Al serum levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency is an important criterion to judge the quality of mobile apps, but one third of our arbitrarily sampled apps suffer from energy issues that can quickly drain battery power. To understand these issues, we conduct an empirical study on 36 well-maintained apps such as Chrome and Firefox, whose issue tracking systems are publicly accessible. Our study involves issue causes, manifestation, fixing efforts, detection techniques, reasons of no-fixes, and debugging techniques. Inspired by the empirical study, we propose a novel testing framework for detecting energy issues in real-world mobile apps. Our framework examines apps with well-designed input sequences and runtime context. We develop leading edge technologies, e.g., pre-designing input sequences with potential energy overuse and tuning tests on-the-fly, to achieve high efficacy in detecting energy issues. A large-scale evaluation shows that 90.4% of the detected issues in our experiments were previously unknown to developers. On average, these issues can double the energy consumption of the test cases where the issues were detected. And our test achieves a low number of false positives. Finally, we show how our test reports can help developers fix the issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is a major constituent of neural and visual membranes and is required for optimal neural and visual function. DHA is derived from food or by endogenous synthesis from α-linolenic acid (ALA), an essential fatty acid. Low blood levels of DHA in some westernised populations have led to speculations that child development disorders and various neurological conditions are associated with sub-optimal neural DHA levels, a proposition which has been supported by the supplement industry. This review searched for evidence of deficiency of DHA in human populations, based on elevated levels of the biochemical marker of n-3 deficiency, docosapentaenoic acid (22:5n-6). Three scenarios/situations were identified for the insufficient supply of DHA, namely in the brain of new-born infants fed with high-linoleic acid (LA), low-ALA formulas, in cord blood of women at birth who were vegetarians and in the milk of women from North Sudan. Twenty post-mortem brain studies from the developed world from adults with various neurological disorders revealed no evidence of raised levels of 22:5n-6, even in the samples with reduced DHA levels compared with control subjects. Human populations most likely at risk of n-3 deficiency are new-born and weanling infants, children and adolescents in areas of dryland agriculture, in famines, or are refugees, however, these populations have rarely been studied. This is an important topic for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The Interpersonal Theory of Suicide (ITS) implicates thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness as casually related to suicide desire. The self‐report Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire (INQ) is the most commonly used measure to assess belongingness and burdensomeness, including in youth. No parent‐report version of the INQ exists. The current study adapted the ten‐item version of the INQ (INQ‐10) for parent report of youth belongingness and burdensomeness, thereby moving ITS research in youth to a multi‐informant measurement approach, and examined its factor structure and convergent and concurrent validity. Methods: Participants were 168 clinic‐referred youths ages 9–17 years (58.9% female; Mage = 11.91) and their parents. Results: Findings supported a two‐factor structure of the parent INQ. In support of convergent and concurrent validity, parent‐reported belongingness and burdensomeness were significantly associated with youth‐reported belongingness and burdensomeness, suicide ideation, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and impairment. Conclusions: The current study provides initial support the INQ‐parent version as a valid measure to complement youth self‐reports of belongingness and burdensomeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamically ensuring the correctness of the functional behavior of a real-time embedded system is tedious, especially in the autonomous domain. Even though the current real-time task model provides sufficient information to perform basic schedulability tests, it is inadequate to be used in runtime monitoring to assert and guarantee the correctness of a system under hardware/- software malfunctions or malicious cyber attacks. In this article, we present a runtime monitoring approach based on a fine-grained model of real-time tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road traffic accident is a major problem worldwide resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. Advanced driver assistance systems are one of the salient features of intelligent systems in transportation. They improve vehicle safety by providing real-time traffic information to the driver. Road signs play an important role in road safety. To be effective, road signs must be visible at a distance that enables drivers to take the necessary actions. However, static road signs are often seen too late for a driver to respond accordingly. In this study, a system for alerting drivers about road signs has been developed and tested using a smart mobile phone. The study was carried out in Tanzania along an 80km highway stretch from Arusha to Moshi town. The Haversine formula was used to measure and estimate the distance between two pairs of coordinates using the smartphone-based navigation application, Google Map. The application provides a voice alert to a needed action that enhances driver's attention. We propose an alternative method that identifies and modifies a specific class of energy inefficiencies. According to the experimental results, the proposed methodology has the benefits of high accuracy within a user radius of 10 meters, minimum bandwidth, and low-cost application. Furthermore, the system application was secured by limiting access to the application program interface key to avoid unauthorized access to sensitive information., Author(s): Eric M. Masatu (corresponding author) [1]; Ramadhani Sinde [1]; Anael Sam [1] 1. Introduction Road traffic accidents (RTA) are defined as accidents that occurred or originated on a way [...]